You’ve probably seen Chapel Road pop up at least once on your Instagram For You page. Most likely, someone posing in front of a wall mural of Bollywood’s yesteryear heroines while traffic builds behind them. Five steps from this selfie hotspot, a quiet revolution is unfolding. Fluxus Chapel defies expectations of what an art space should be. Part gallery, part lending library, part community hub, and part co-op, it strips away the pretension that often envelops contemporary art. Here, the art is not an object of worship, confined to the gilded walls of a museum or a high-end gallery, but a living, breathing conversation: one that everyone is invited to join.

At Fluxus, the lines between artist and audience blur, and the barriers between life and art dissolve. The space’s name, drawn from the avant-garde Fluxus movement of the 1960s, speaks to its philosophy: “flux us, us in flux.” Its opening hours change every day too. The guiding principle is that art is not a fixed product or an aesthetic to aspire to. Instead, it is a process, an approach, a state of being. This space celebrates the everyday, where anyone and everyone can become an artist.

Walk inside, and you’ll immediately sense something different. There’s no sterile white cube, no air of exclusivity. Instead, there are shelves crammed with zines, hand-bound art books, independent publications, and a lending library offering everything from obscure theory texts to handmade comics. The exhibits are intimate, raw, and vulnerable — art that feels like a dialogue between friends, rather than a spectacle meant to impress.

Founded in 2022 by Mumbai-based artist Himanshu, Fluxus Chapel began with a simple goal: to create a space for variations of work to co-exist, a place that could host anyone from a 7-year-old to a seasoned artist. Inspired by his own practice and the desire to sidestep the hierarchies of the mainstream art world, Himanshu enlisted a small group of like-minded artists to run the space like a co-op. They shared the rent, split the labor, and each took turns exhibiting their work. But Fluxus wasn’t meant to be a club or a clique — it was meant to stay open, inclusive, a space where Mumbai’s often rigid art world could bend.

“We’ve tasted blood, and now we can’t go back,” Himanshu says. To him, Fluxus represents the possibility of independence — not just from sponsors and industrial backers, but from the compromises that artists often make when they adapt to mainstream hierarchies. At Fluxus, no one takes a commission, no one dictates pricing, and no one censors. If you exhibit, you contribute 1% of the running costs. The art stays affordable — many pieces sell for just a few hundred rupees — and all proceeds go back to the artist.

It’s an experiment in radical transparency and self-sufficiency, but it hasn’t been without its challenges. Monetarily, the space struggles. Rent is high, and the collective behind it has had to make do with bare essentials. In its earliest days, Fluxus was a stark, minimal space with just a glass door and a few shelves. “Whenever there’s a little extra money, we build,” says Himanshu. The space has evolved as its community has grown, reflecting the times but always with the same ethos: remove your shoes; be mindful of the space; there’s no one to clean up after you.

That ethos extends to the visitors, too. Many arrive as outsiders to the art world but leave as creators. The zines, with their personal, first-hand voices, feel like entire exhibitions packed into pages, but without the pretension or barriers of a traditional gallery. The work at Fluxus is very intimate, raw and vulnerable. Simultaneously, since they’re affordable, they’re very much collectable. Himanshu adds, “Many visitors feel inspired to make something of their own, to return to their incomplete plans, things they were passionate about, stories to share. I get to visit their inner child, and live my inner child.”

Himanshu explains that the reason he chose a shop front as the spot for Fluxus was because it makes it comfortable for anyone to walk in without having the inhibitions of entering an art space. Moreover, “On an individual level, it’s about negotiating my position as an artist — a core aspect to zine making/distributing — the will to negotiate one’s position as an artist which most makers aren’t ready to fit.”

It’s a testament to the power of counterculture, which is at the heart of everything Fluxus does. The space hosts workshops, skill shares, free schools, and swap shops. It’s a place where people gather not just to see art but to make it, to exchange ideas, and to learn from each other. And in a city like Mumbai, where independent art spaces are few and far between, Fluxus is an anomaly. It resists the polished, high-capital art scene, where success is often equated with profit and spectacle. At Fluxus, the spectacle is not the goal — it’s the process, the risk, and the community that’s built along the way.

But the space’s future remains uncertain. As Himanshu puts it, “What does it mean to truly run your own space? To be independent?” In a city where capital dictates much of what survives, Fluxus is an act of resilience. Every time they consider shutting down, they find a way to keep going, to keep showing, to keep opening their doors to anyone who dares to walk in and join the flux.

In an art world increasingly shaped by social media spectacle and academic co-optation, Fluxus Chapel offers something rare: a genuine alternative. It’s a space where the art world’s hierarchies and institutions fall away, and where the definition of what it means to be an artist is constantly in flux.

You can follow Fluxus here.

If you enjoyed reading this, here's more from Homegrown:

An Interactive Space In New Delhi Is Changing The Way We Visit Art Galleries

Visit A Mumbai Gallery Moving Homegrown Art Away From 'White Cube Spaces'

Beats & Banter Is A Community Space Spotlighting Alternative Art In Hyderabad